SOUTHWICK – The Select Board sat down with DPW Director Randy Brown at the last Select Board meeting to discuss Brown’s plan for the next fiscal year’s DPW budget.
As Brown laid out several needs on his proposed budget, a main priority includes the NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Storm water permit. The permit will be in effect for all towns in Massachusetts by this upcoming July.
Brown went year by year with the permit, so he could show the Select Board the projected costs.
Southwick DPW Director Randy Brown discussed his budget plans with the Select Board this week. (WNG File Photo)
In the first year of the permit, there will be around $100,000 in costs.
From the second year to the fifth year, the expenses will continue to go up so the town can meet the terms of the permit.
Brown believes that having five years of the storm water permit, will give the DPW the chance to get a real hard look at the town’s storm water systems.
“That’s what these 5 years are, really identifying what the problems are,” said Brown at the table with the Select Board.
Once the town of Southwick reaches the sixth year of the permit, it will be decided if there are any big problems with the system that need to be fixed.
“That’s where the real costs will come in,” said Brown.
The permit is an unfunded mandate so the money spent on it will be coming directly from the town.
“There are some real costs that are going to have to be devoted to this year after year,” said Brown.
There were other areas in the department that Brown also addressed to the Select Board during the budget discussion.
Under highway needs, there are critical construction and improvements for paving, drainage, and curbing. These items are all carried over from last year’s budget plan.
Culvert replacements are also an option to be placed into the budget, in which the total cost would be around $300,000.
There are a number of culverts in town that would need to be replaced. Brown referred to the failing culvert on Granville Rd. that would need to be addressed immediately.
“It’s not something that’s going to go away so it’s something that we need to address,” said Brown.
Also an item under highway is the request for a new vibratory roller that would be around $32,000. The current vibratory roller is about 27 years old.
“It’s old, it’s tough to find replacement parts,” said Brown. “We’d like to get this machine off the road with a new machine that can probably have better compaction.”
Moving to machinery, Brown mentioned that the DPW has about 30 pieces of equipment in their fleet. It is another item that needs to have an upgrade, as about 10 pieces of the equipment are 15 years old.
“We’re going to get to a point where we have several pieces of equipment out of service,” said Brown.
Towards the end of his budget talk with the Select Board, Brown brought up some of the needs for the sewer portion of the department.
Brown would prefer to keep a line item of $40,000, which would be used for grinder pump maintenance. Buying more grinder pumps seemed like a wise idea for Brown, so they could last longer.
The Select Board asked Brown about the effect a grinder pump could potentially have for the residents of Congamond Rd., if they do get a sewer line installed.
Brown said that some residents along Congamond Rd. would need to have a grinder pump put in, but not everyone.
In regards to the Congamond Rd. sewer line project moving forward, Brown will be having a meeting with the sewer committee next Tuesday in which they will discuss that matter.
